On Wed, 8 Mar 2006 14:42:00 +0100 Holger Levsen wrote:
> Hi,
Hi!
[...]
> I would like to inform you about a licence change I propose for those
> and other videos, and am highly interesting in your thoughts about
> this.
>
> Before FOSDEM, all videos were released under a MIT-style licence.
and that was a clearly DFSG-free choice.
I'm personally very happy with that choice and feel it's a perfectly
adequate license for videos.
>
> I want to change this now, and release the fosdem videos and further
> ones - until we change this again - under the "by
> attribution"-licence, version 2.5, with the changes for scottish
> legislation. This sounds complicated, but the licence is simple to
> understand and IMHO better suited for video works than, for example,
> a MIT-style licence or the artistic licence, which I also considered.
I disagree.
I'm not convinced that CC-by, even it didn't suffer its DFSG-freeness
issues, would be better suited for videos.
>
> The URL for the licence is
> http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/scotland
As a sidenote, the URL you quoted points to the "license summary" of
CC-by-2.5/scotland.
This summary includes a "Legal Code (the full license)" link that seems
to wrongly point to the international version, that is to say:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/legalcode
It should point to
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/scotland/legalcode
instead, I think.
This should be fixed by Creative Commons (someone who cares should point
it out to them...).
Just another reason why licensing works with a URL reference (rather
than accompanying the work with the full license text) is really bad
practice and should be discouraged as far as possible (rather than
officialized, as CC did...): you *cannot* guarantee that the provided
URL will (continue to) point to what you meant when you adopted the
license...
OK, back on topic: the license text is quoted below for future reference
(copied and pasted from
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/scotland/legalcode).
>
> MJ Ray, who suggested the licence to me, answered my question about
> why the scottish version with: "Scottish law requires plain language,
> so Jonathan Mitchell QC removed the ambiguity from the attribution
> clause and unscrewed the anti-DRM clause. [..] I hope similar
> solutions will be in all 3.0 licences. You probably want to waive or
> override the s6.5 'sue me here' choice."
I'm not convinced that a work licensed under CC-by-2.5/scotland complies
with the DFSG.
Although CC-by-2.5/scotland is better than CC-by-2.0, I still see some
of the issues that are outlined in Evan Prodromou's summary
(http://people.debian.org/~evan/ccsummary.html).
Specifically:
* Removing credit when requested to do so
The end of clause 2.3 states:
"But, if what you are publishing or distributing is a Derivative Work or
a Collective Work, you must remove any of these credits if you are asked
to do so by the Licensor and if it is practicable to do so."
How requiring that credit be purged from a Collective Work or a
Derivative Work upon request from an Original Author can pass the DFSG?
Although the clause is greatly improved (with respect to CC-by-2.0
international version), I still see a restriction in distributing
aggregates (DFSG#1) and derivatives (DFSG#3).
Why cannot I claim that my derived work is based on the original work,
if it's true?
Where's the DFSG that allow such a restriction?
* Any comparable authorship credit
This issue is still present, as clause 2.3e states, in part, "placing
that credit in the same place, and at least as prominently, as any
comparable authorship credit."
See Evan Prodromou's summary for details about this issue...
* Sue me in Scotland
Clause 6.5 states, in part:
"the parties accept the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Scotland
to decide any action or claim directed against the Licensor."
This is a choice of venue, but it is limited to lawsuits directed
against the *Licensor*, and so could be harmless for the *Licensee*.
It is a major inconvenience for any *Licensor* that does not live or do
business in Scotland, though.
Personally, as an author, I would never license a work under terms that
say that anyone who wants to sue me, must accept the venue to be in
Scotland: I live in Italy, I don't want to be forced to travel to
Scotland to defend myself!!!
>
> Not sure how to deal with the s6.5 "sue me here" choice - creating a
> cc-2.5-by-scotland-debian-videoteam-licence doesn't look pretty nor
> sensible to me... so for now I would just use that licence as it is.
I recommend you against adopting or promoting this license.
[...]
> Please reply to both mailinglists only, thanks. (Or privatly :)
[...]
Done.
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--
:-( This Universe is buggy! Where's the Creator's BTS? ;-)
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